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There so many things that you can incorporate into a morning routine. Run, swim, walk, write, journal, yoga, hot bath, massage… For me, apart from planks and journalling, I have chosen meditation. To understand why I’ve chosen meditation, I will have to take you back 20 years when I got my first taste of what meditation can be.
I was in UK then, and while walking down the street, there was a tour agency holding a loudspeaker announcing cheap flights to Frankfurt. I’ve never been to Germany and so I thought I just grabbed the chance.
After I got my flight sorted, I didn’t know what I was going to do there. So I looked through some recommendations and a teacher suggested i try the meditation retreat there. I was a student then. I had all summer. Why not.
So there I go, on a whim, to a small town called Karlsruhe, for 10 days. This was my first introduction to meditation.
I remember the house rules then. Wake up at 4:30am, meditate. Breakfast at 6am, rest after. Meditate again at 9am (most people were there way before that). Lunch at 11:30am, rest. Meditate again at 2pm (again, most people were there way before that). A light snack at 5pm (for us new people. Older students don’t eat after lunch). Meditate at 8pm. There was 1 hour of instruction then, the only time when anyone was allowed to talk, and it was to be addressed to the teacher. I remember laughing the most then. Why laughter? I guess it was my way of hiding my acknowledgement of what the teacher was saying. Everything was true. I am experiencing what the teacher was saying.
This went on for all 10 days. The students started to understand each other without using words. We are a courteous bunch. After 10 days, stories started to pour out. “Why are you here?” Because… my boyfriend left me, I had a fight with my father, I was on a trip… each different yet similar.
Now what has this backstory got to do with why I meditate?
The backstory is important for one thing. It doesn’t matter how you get there. People meditate for all kinds of reasons. But the important thing is to focus on the outcome. For Vipassana meditation, it is:
learn not to react
We learn not to react to the breath. We learn not to react to sounds. We learn not to react to any physical sensations on the body. We just be. Be there. Back hurts. Ok, I acknowledge that the back hurts. Legs numb? Ok. I acknowledge that the legs are numb. People coughing incessantly? Ok. I acknowledge that the sound of coughing is irritating to me.
It wasn’t obvious then, but with practice, I learn to lengthen the fuse to the eventual anger bomb that I normally detonate on the littlest of things. Sometimes that’s all I need, to have a longer fuse, so that I do not blow up as often as I do. I am not a very patient person.
If you are doing meditation too, please share why you do it and the impact it has on you.
